Standoff
by Solstice Muse
Summary: Ron and his children decorate the Christmas tree. It's always a dangerous activity.


**Standoff**

"Nobody move!"

Ron's eyes darted to his wand on the table. He slowly reached for it but the wand aimed at the three of them pointed directly at him.

"I said nobody move, especially you."

"What did I do to be singled out?" Ron protested.

"Set an example, lead Auror, behave and nobody will get hurt."

"I'm trying to see to that myself." Ron still had his arm extended towards his wand.

"Let me fix this and then you can carry on with your baubles in one piece."

"I'm quite capable of saving my baubles, thanks."

"Yes, nice save…keeper." Hermione said as he arched an eyebrow and looked down to the shattered glass bauble all over the floor.

Hugo went to move but Hermione raised her voice once again.

"Nobody is to move, no feet lift, shuffle or even twitch!"

"Yes mum," Hugo and Rose said together.

Hermione looked to Ron, expectantly. He gave a tut and rolled his eyes.

"Yes mum."

Hugo and Rose stifled giggles and Hermione bristled.

"Not funny, Ron."

"I can clean it up myself." Ron reached for his wand again.

"You're the genius who, along with our equally inspired children, decided to hang glass baubles barefoot. Every year, Ron, EVERY YEAR!"

"Nobody's cut their feet!"

"And nobody will cut their feet if you let me fix it now."

"I can fix it. I'm more than capable of fixing it!"

"They're from my grandmother's tree, Ron, they've got sentimental value to me and it's a very complex hand painted pattern."

"Oh this is about when I put the 'Hermione's First Christmas' one back together and it said 'Mr M, a Feces Hits Shit Sir Ron' isn't it?"

Hugo giggled very hard at this and Rose elbowed him in the ribs and widened her eyes to warn him to keep looking serious.

"Just let me fix it," Hermione said, despairingly, "please, Ron?"

Ron folded his arms and looked at the wall as if it was a window.

"Fine."

"Don't sulk."

"I'm not, go ahead, save me and the children from my inept magical skills. I'm only a commended Auror."

"Commended by Harry," Hermione muttered.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Ron's head snapped back to face her, ears bright pink and face the visual definition of outrage.

"Nothing." Hermione shrugged, expression impassive.

"Harry doesn't give me credit where it's not due."

"I know."

"So what did you mean?"

"I didn't mean anything."

"I think she means that Uncle Harry holds you in high esteem, daddy." Rose said with a helpful smile.

"Yes," Hermione said, beaming.

"Don't help her!" Ron said, looking down at Rose with a significant degree of betrayal, before looking back at Hermione a little smugly. "And _I_ taught her esteem, she learned that from me."

"And who did you learn it from?"

"Our daughter learned esteem from me, I learned low self esteem from you, there's a big difference, Hermione."

Hermione stared at Ron with wide eyes. Hugo drew in a long, dramatic breath. Rose clasped both hands to her face.

Ron's pink ears drained of all colour and he visibly swallowed. He looked away from his wife and towards his wand, grabbing it and flicking it down at the broken bauble.

"_Reparo!_"

The bauble reformed, every shard of broken glass bonding back together again, and Ron stooped down to pick it up.

"Go and put your slippers on and we'll finish decorating the tree," Ron said to his children in a calm tone.

Rose took Hugo's hand and led him away, upstairs.

"Are they going to say nasty things to each other or have sex again?" Hugo whispered to her.

"Shhh!" Rose hissed. "We're not supposed to know they do that, remember."

"Of course they do that. That's where we came from!"

"Yes but as far as I'm concerned they only did it twice, once for me and once for you."

"My bedroom's next to theirs and I know they've done it more than twice."

"Don't tell me!"

"This morning…" Hugo began.

"Lalalalala, I'm not listening!" Rose's voice disappeared behind her bedroom door.

"They did it more than twice just last night!" Hugo shouted through her door, laughing.

"Slippers!" Ron shouted to them, still in front of the Christmas tree in the living room, bauble in his hand.

Hermione looked mildly amused, but quite troubled.

Ron stepped forward and handed her the bauble.

"You were right, I did cock it up." He muttered.

Hermione took the bauble and cradled it in her hand. It was the one that had said 'Rosey and Hugh'.

Hermione bit her lip as she read it after Ron's fix.

_Sory (head hung)_

"There's two 'R's' in sorry."

"I know. I made brackets though," Ron said into his chest, eyes peering through his fringe in exactly the same way Hugo's did when he was apologising.

"Parentheses," Hermione said with a smile as she set the bauble down, gently.

Ron began to lift his head and breathe in to say something more. Hermione stepped in and caught his lips before he could do anything. Her arms slid around his waist and her hands found the small of his back and the top of his backside as she pulled him against her.

She kissed him deeper and he stooped lower to return the kiss with equal gusto. His fingers were lost in her hair and one of her hands slid up his back and gripped the back of his neck.

The kiss broke as Hermione stared into Ron's eyes and breathily spoke her mind.

"Did we really only do it once this morning?"

"It's okay, you were busy, I had a wank in the shower too."

Hermione grinned against his mouth and then tugged at his earlobe with her teeth before whispering.

"I'll have a bath and catch you up, then we'll meet in the bedroom and finish each other off."

"What about the kids?"

"Send them to Harry's, let them break his balls."

Ron grinned and the children thundered back down the stairs in their slippers, ready to finish decorating the tree.

They peered around the door to see if their parents were still angry or making up in a way they didn't want to see. They both relaxed to see their father beaming and hugging their mother.

"Why are you so happy now?" Hugo looked at them, knowingly.

"Uncle Harry's not going to hold me in much esteem this afternoon," Ron said, with a smirk.

Rose rolled her eyes and Hugo leaned over and whispered to her.

"They're gonna do it!"


End file.
